Six years after the tragic downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17), Russia continues to deny it was responsible for the murders of 298 innocent people – civilian passengers and crew – on a commercial flight heading over Ukrainian territory from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.
As the jet was flying over territory occupied by Russian and Russian-backed forces on July 17, 2014, it was shot down by a Russian Buk missile. That was the conclusion released in 2018 by the Joint Investigative Team (JIT), which also underscored that the Buk had come from Russia, from a military base in Kursk, and that the surface-to-air missile belonged to the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade. Readers will recall that the JIT is composed of officials from Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and the Netherlands, whose citizens were passengers on MH17, and Ukraine, on whose territory the downing occurred. The Dutch lead the JIT, as almost two-thirds of the victims were Dutch nationals.
As it did in 2018 at the time the JIT announced its findings, Russia denies any involvement in this deadly episode. And that’s despite the fact that three Russian officers and one Ukrainian “separatist” stand charged with involvement in MH17’s downing – more precisely, with arranging for the Buk system used to shoot it down – and are now standing trial, in absentia, at The Hague in proceedings that began in early March of this year. In April, the investigative website Bellingcat identified a key figure in the case: Col. Gen. Andrey Burlaka from the FSB is said to have been “in a crucial position to supervise the movement of weapons from Russia to Ukraine, and thus would have had to authorize the transfer of the Russian Buk missile launcher.”
In addition, this month the Dutch government announced it is taking Russia to the European Court of Human Rights for its role in the shootdown. By launching the case, the Dutch said they will share “all available and relevant information about the downing” with the court to support individual cases filed by victims’ families against Russia.
Meanwhile, Russia maintains that the investigation and the trial at the Hague are biased and politically motivated, and designed to “achieve political goals,” as Russia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov said back in 2018. Moreover, Russia continues its disinformation campaign aimed at undermining the validity of the JIT’s findings.
On July 17, the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine extended condolences to the families and friends of the 298 civilians who lost their lives aboard MH17 and in a post on Facebook said: “We call on Russia to cooperate fully with the investigation & efforts to establish accountability, in line with UNSC [United Nations Security Council] Resolution 2166.”
Here in the United States, the president of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, Andriy Futey, commented “The downing of MH17 is an egregious example of the Kremlin’s disregard for innocent life. Righteousness must be delivered for the victims of this horrible tragedy.” Ukrainian World Congress President Paul Grod, who is based in Toronto, wrote: “We are confident that the truth will be uncovered but question whether justice will be served. The top Russian political and military commanders who gave the order to shoot down M17 must face criminal responsibility, and the Russian Federation must be held accountable to pay reparations to the victims’ families.”
But the reality is this: Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Stef Blok in 2018 expressed his disappointment that Russia would not acknowledge the “irrefutable evidence” in the MH17 case and commented that, “So far, Russian authorities don’t show the slightest interest in achieving truth, justice and accountability.” Now, two years later, and six years after the murderous act, there isn’t the slightest sign that Russia has changed its tune. For that criminal intransigence, it deserves the international community’s condemnation.